Warhammer Mark Of Chaos

by Namco

Product Features

• Gameplay focuses on the armies and battles, instead of the tedious aspects of base and resource management
• Epic sense of both scale and detail where big demons and huge beautifully rendered battalions clash with thousands of characters
• A variety of buildable features and randomized, destructible terrains such as forests, swamps, plains, and tundra change the shape of the battlefield
• Heroes and Champions learn new tactics, unlock new abilities, command larger units, even challenge other Champions in a duel to the death
• Customize your army - Swap body parts, add weapons and armor, even paint units and banners

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000J2ZS9C
• Item Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: November 14, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,065 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #96 in Video Games > PC Games > Role-Playing
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Faithful to the Warhammer license Warhammer: Mark of Chaos puts the focus squarely on the battlefield with a real-time combat system that gives the player unprecedented customization and control of his army. An epic battle rages following a brutal Chaos invasion where four fully playable armies (Empire Chaos Skaven and High Elves) as well as additional controllable races (Orcs Dwarfs Vampires and Goblins) clash on a massive battlefield.FEATURES:MASTER THE ART OF WAR: Warhammer: Mark of Chaos is about WAR focusing on the armies and battles while de-emphasizing the tedious aspects of base and resource management.EPIC VISCERAL BATTLES ON A MASSIVE SCALE: Epic sense of both scale and detail where big demons and huge beautifully rendered battalions clash with thousands of characters battling on screens in intricate detail.USE ENVIRONMENTS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE: A variety of buildable features and randomized destructible terrains such as forests swamps plains and tundra change the shape of the battlefield and add a layer of strategy that provides infinite replayability.COMMAND HEROES AND CHAMPIONS: As armies move from battle to battle in an epic war Heroes and Champions learn new tactics unlock new abilities command larger units even challenge other Champions in a duel to the death.CUSTOMIZE YOUR ARMY: WARHAMMER: Mark of Chaos takes customization to a new level by allowing for body part swaps weaponand armor enhancements and more powerful controls to paint units and customize banners. Additionally players can accent armies with mercenaries and Dogs of War augmenting the look and play of their army for a unique game experience.VARIETY OF PLAY MODES: Dynamic cooperative campaign mode and a full assortment of multiplayer modes for both casual and competitive gamers.Format: WIN 2000XP Genre: ENTERTAINMENT Rating: RP UPC: 722674400145 Manufacturer No: 40014

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good game, though room for improvement, November 25, 2006

By 

Andrew C. (USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Warhammer Mark Of Chaos (CD-ROM)

I've never played the table-top version of Warhammer, but this game seemed to be a fairly interesting take on the age-old elves, orcs, and dwarf formula that appears in so many games nowadays. I'm a huge fan of Relic's Dawn of War franchise, so I decided to pick this game up. Overall, I'm glad that I got this game; it's a solid product with lots of potential for expansion. However, it also has plenty of room for improvement, and I would suggest that anyone considering this game to play the demo first.

Gameplay: The game is true to the standard real-time strategy (RTS) formula, minus the harvesting and base building. You pick and customize your units before each battle and then fight it out against other armies in open fields or sieges. Some of the battles feel somewhat epic, especially the castle sieges. But there are never more than about 400-500 units on the map at any give time. Hero units play a huge role in the game. They can "level up" and collect items like heroes in roleplaying games, duel against other heroes, and give bonuses to the troops that they command. The hero system, as it stands now, needs to be refined a bit more so that heroes don't level up too fast (I had one go from 10th to 35th level in less than 5 minutes in one skirmish game!). However, I generally like what heroes add to gameplay. The game does have some tactical elements to it. Things such as morale, terrain, flanking, charges, and unit-counters do come into play. Units with broken morale will flee, which can end a battle quickly. Cavalry is underpowered and does not nearly justify its cost. There is friendly fire in this game, but only in the case of area-of-effect weapons like cannon. In my opinion, that's good enough. I killed too many of my own soldiers with Hellfire Cannon in the single-player campaign to want any more varieties of friendly fire!

There are two single-player campaigns that come with the game. One for Chaos and one for the Empire. Playing through each (about 20-25 hours all together) will allow you to use all four playable races (Men, Elves, Chaos, and Skaven), as well as some minor races (Orcs and Dwarves). There are a variety of missions, from sieges and kill-all-enemies maps to duels and some minor dungeon crawling. The campaigns tell a decent story , though a linear one with very little replay value. The game includes both a single-player skirmish mode and online modes. It's good fun, but my biggest gripe has to do with the very small number of maps. Even with the 1.2 patch that came out at the same time the game was released, there are only 15 skirmish maps. Of that number, only 8 can be played as single-player skirmishes! This is really a shame and inexcusable. As with all other RTS games, the shelf life of this one will depend on whether the developer provides strong support with patches that fix bugs and add new content (like maps), as well as whether modders kick in.

Graphics: This is an absolutely gorgeous game. The terrain and environments are beautifully done, and the models themselves are finely detailed. The only dull spot here is the animations, which are decent but not up to par with the likes of Relic's Dawn of War or EA's Battle for Middle Earth 2. The intro movie is phenomenal and the cutscenes are pretty good as well. The graphics go a long way toward setting the atmosphere of the game.

Sounds: Everything is pretty good in this area. Weapons sound appropriate, the music is boisterous and epic, and the voice acting is mostly solid. It actually sounds like some of the Chaos voice actors were imported from Dawn of War, which is fine with me since the voices are so appropriately wicked.

Technical issues: I have had no crashes, freezes, stutters, or any other problems with this game with the 1.2 patch installed. I am running it on a fairly good computer (E6600 dual-core processor, 2 gigs of RAM, Geforce 7900GTO video card). The game comes with a very good manual that explains the gameplay and units, and the in-game tutorial is pretty good. Also, I have had no issues with the camera, which rotates and zooms fine. For some reason, the game comes on 6 CDs, with no DVD option available. In this day and age, I don't think that any game that takes up more than 4 CDs should be released without a DVD option.

Value: As an RTS gamer, I liked this game very much. It's a good blend of tactical gaming, roleplaying elements, and a fantasy-based storyline. Due to the severe lack of maps, I don't think it's worth $50 (more like $30). However, if the developer steps up to the plate and releases several more (free) skirmish maps and makes some other adjustments with patches, I could recommend it more firmly. Also, a good, meaty, well-thought out expansion could do wonders for this game.

Rating: 3.75 stars (out of 5)

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rushed development ruined a potentially good game, December 2, 2006

By 

obediah (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

= Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Warhammer Mark Of Chaos (CD-ROM)

"Warhammer Mark of Chaos" is a combat oriented real time strategy game. All elements of base building and resource management have been removed and the game consists of a linear progression from battle to battle, with token plot elements scattered in between. The main strength of the game is its beautifully rendered characters. The user can zoom using the mouse wheel from the "bird's eye" perspective all the way down to the individual character level. Whilst the game provides plenty of eye candy, sadly this is one of the few positives in an otherwise limited repetoire.

The game has drawbacks aplenty. Firstly as mentioned above the game is very linear which severely cripples its replayability in single player mode. The computer AI is horrendous. Given that the combat system is the game's only real selling point, the user would expect the AI to be able to implement at least rudimentary military strategy. Instead, the computer AI sends its units forth one at a time to be invariably crushed when facing the entire weight of the opposing army.

The game has a duelling system which allows opposing heroes to fight. This was rather pathetic. The enemy heroes were so overmatched that I was able to leave my hero alone and he was able to slay the enemy foe without so much as a mouse click from me. The game is also poorly balanced to the extent that I was able to finish the final mission on hardest difficulty without losing even a single troop. The heroes are far too powerful and this saps much of the enjoyability of the game.

Once the novelty wears off, and it quickly does wear off, it becomes very difficult to find anything about the game which can be talked about in a positive light. As such my only recommendation is to stay away.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Graphics - Be Sure to Update, March 25, 2007

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Warhammer Mark Of Chaos (CD-ROM)

Warhammer - Mark of Chaos involves thousands of soldiers in a fantasy world clashing against each other. Elves, Goblins, Skaven and Humans battle it out for supremacy of the known world.

Before you even start playing this game, make sure you UPDATE it. It took us five tries to even get this game installed - the install utility kept crashing. We have a very new machine, too. There are countless tales of the gameplay crashing. If you do a full update - which can take an hour or more - you have the best possible chance of actually playing this game bug-free.

The graphics are gorgeous. You do need a high end computer to take full advantage of them, but you were due for an upgrade anyway, right? The elegance of the elves, the gritty darkness of the goblins, everything shows up with great detail and an eye for the cultures involved. When you're involved in the battles you can zoom out for a general overlook of the terrain, or zoom in close to watch individual soldiers duke it out.

The game is all about large scale battles. You choose what units you're going to send out against the foe, and then the battle commences. Think in terms of massive samurai battles with gigantic forces sweeping down against each other.

Speaking of samurai battles, you also get the one-on-one hero conflict that samurai warriors were so fond of. This gives you a break from the massive battle for a while, focussing on just one particular person, and the way he moves and swings.

Like most games of this ilk, the single-player gameplay is really more of a training mission than anything else. There are two, reasonably long (each perhaps a weekend of playing) scripted missions that help you learn the strengths and weaknesses of the various units. This helps you hone your skills against the enemy AI which isn't awful, but of course isn't great either. Then head into the one-player skirmish to test out the other maps and to set up situations to test your less-strong points, to get those worked out.

Once you've got those basics down, it's time to take on the real challenge - other humans!

Online gameplay is where all games like this shine. You're now playing against real humans, with real skills, ones who will spot your weaknesses and take cold advantage of them.

If you're a fan of epic warfare, of the likes seen in the Lord of the Rings movie and the 300, then this is definitely a game to check out. Just make sure your system is tweaked and that you download all the updates before you take it on!

Recommended.